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Bid for GP's surgery on car park rejected
Faye Adams4/ 7/2008
ROCHDALE Council has rejected plans for a mobile health clinic to be stationed on the Town Hall car park.
In a bid to protect the hall as a Grade I listed building, councillors voted unanimously against the plan because it would be ‘detrimental to the setting and character of the Town Hall’.
The clinic, which it is estimated would have seen around 80,000 patients a year, would offer general surgery, ear, nose and throat, musculoskeletal disorders, urology and gynaecology services.
It was intended to cut waiting lists particularly in diagnostics, with Greater Manchester having some of the longest in the country.
Care UK, which is behind the proposals, had initially asked that the clinic be allowed to stay for up to eight years.
This fell to 18 months on the advice of the council and English Heritage.
Officers had recommended the plan be given the green light saying the ‘substantial community benefits’ would outweigh the ‘temporary harm’ to the town hall and the conservation area.
But on Tuesday the Rochdale Township planning sub-committee threw out the application from Care UK as being ‘detrimental to the setting and character of the Town Hall’.
Dorothy Greaves, from the Rochdale Civic Society, spoke against the plan, saying the Royal Institute of British Architects had classed the Town Hall as having attributes to rival the houses of parliament.
She said it would leave the town hall with a ‘Queen Anne front and a Mary Anne back’.
Councillor James Gartside said the loss of the 30 car parking spaces would affect trade in the town even if the council was reimbursed for the spaces as proposed.
Councillor Zulf Ali said: "Many people come here to visit the town hall because of its car parking.
"Putting any big units there would have a negative impact on the town itself."
Care UK has spent two years searching for suitable sites.
Among those looked at was Dunelm Mill car park, the site of the demolished Christian Science Church in Smith Street and Hunters Lane Car Park.
Rochdale Football Club was considered too remote.
Following the meeting a spokesman for Care UK said the company is working with Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale Primary Care Trust to find an alternative site.
A spokesman for the Trust said: "Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale Primary Care Trust is disappointed at the decision of the planning committee, especially as it was understood to have the support of the local authority."
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4/07/2008 at 18:41
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